Publication year

Innovation is today’s equivalent of the Holy Grail. Governments in the advanced
countries see it as a way of keeping up economic growth amid deteriorating
demographic prospects. Emerging countries see it as a way of catching up with
the industrialised countries.

In the second quarter, the Italian economy managed to realise a modest acceleration in growth. But both industrial production and sentiment indicators point to a new recession in the second half of the year.

Germany’s growth in 11Q2 was nothing short of disappointing, especially given the sharp contraction in consumption amid improvement in the labour market. It seems to us that waiting for German consumers to spend more is like waiting for Godot.

Qatar is a small Gulf state with only 0.9m inhabitants, who enjoy one of the world’s highest GDP per capita due the country’s vast hydrocarbon resources. The domestic social situation in Qatar is stable, despite fear of an Arab Spring revolution.

‘Gloomy’ is the best way to describe the economic outlook for the Netherlands. The mood among consumers is extremely low, inflation has gone up, consumption hardly increases, unemployment is higher and house prices are lower still.

The Country Risk Research team of Rabobank’s Economic Department presents
to you the study ‘Poland In depth: ten years ahead’. With this study we aim to
provide an in depth analysis of Poland and point out the key developments in the
next decade.

The growth performance of India and China has been astonishing. This paper considers their innovative performance, now and in the future. It looks at the various factors driving innovation, as well as the obstacles that China and India need to overcome.

After relatively good performance in the past quarters, the European debt crisis seems to weigh on the Belgian economy. The sentiment of both consumers and producers dropped sharply since August. The yield on 10-year government bonds dropped to 3.7%.